(https://www.dismantlemag.com) FASHION|POPULAR CULTURE|SOCIAL CHANGE / January 14, 2019 Dana Scully’s Truth Is Still Out There: On The X- Files Finale, Gaslighting, And Unexplored Narratives by Andrea Dulanto(https://www.dismantlemag.com/author/andread/) i [Content Warnings: Discussion of Medical Rape. Contains Spoilers] If you have loved The X-Files, then at some point, you have probably wanted more X-Files. And that’s why — for me and several million fans — it was hard to hear Gillian Anderson speak about not playing the character of Dana Scully anymore. During the The X-Files’ filming of Season 11 in 2017, Anderson adamantly proclaimed at New York Comic Con (https://screenrant.com/gillian-anderson-done-x-files-season- 11/) and later on social media(https://twitter.com/gilliana/status/944055672597045248?lang=en) that she was done with the role, and in early 2018 at the Television Critics Association 2018 winter press tour(https://www.oregonlive.com/tv/2018/01/gillian_anderson_says_im_finis.html), she reiterated her decision: “I don’t really want to be tied down to months and months of doing any particular one thing that I feel like I’ve done.” After an original series run of nine seasons (1993-2002), two movies in 1998 and 2008, and a previous revival season in 2016, who can blame her? Yet,considering the ageism in the entertainment industry, as well as the current market for revivals and remakes(https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarabernstein/tv-reboots- revivals-roseanne-gilmore-girls-twin-peaks), Anderson could have chosen to leave the door open and not to announce publicly that she was done. So then the question became: would The X-Files continue without her? It seems the answer came when “My Struggle IV,” the last episode of Season 11, aired in March 2018 as a season (not series) finale. It was clear then that Anderson had made a choice to leave outside of any possible series developments. Although we don’t know if Anderson left due to other unstated reasons, one valid possibility could have been the show’s failure to address years of problematic misogynist and non-feminist tropes — despite it proposing to be a vehicle for a feminist icon. In particular, The X-Files at times raised the issue of gaslighting, but ultimately failed to question its effect on women’s lives. Gaslighting is a method of maintaining power by manipulating others’ perceptions and sense of reality. For marginalized groups, gaslighting is not just an issue of psychological trauma, but one of systemic power, as inequalities are maintained by powerful voices controlling the dominant narrative. In science fiction, gaslighting as a narrative can be used to question social power and can even be empowering if the people being gaslighted are able to find ways to resist. Throughout the earlier seasons of The X-Files, FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder found ways to hold onto their truths despite being discredited by those in power. However, by the end of season 11 the audience was no longer clued in on the “truth,” and the gaslighting eventually became just another way to obscure plot and character development. Most of Season 11 was a nostalgic return to the theme of Scully and Mulder against the machines and monsters. The episodes were retro, surreal, and sometimes fun. However, the Season 11 premiere, “My Struggle III” and particularly the finale “My Struggle IV” are both a disruption of what the entire series used to represent as well as a continuation of how the show had diminished Dana Scully. Scully’s narrative in “My Struggle IV” devolves into a contrived soap opera subplot of midlife pregnancy, and highlights what had already been happening to this character for years: her status as a feminist icon was being undone by inconsistent and problematic narratives, particularly as her identity as a mother became her only story. Eventually, even this narrative didn’t belong to her anymore. The season 11 finale shows Dana Scully — an FBI agent, a professional in the fields of science and medicine — dismissing her lived experience of motherhood for reasons that could be related to gaslighting as well as the aftermath of her medical rape(s) and grief; this moves her towards a life that no longer questions or explores the unknown, and Scully’s truth stays untold. The X-Files: A Complicated Love-Hate Relationship Scully’s narrative is not the only confounding aspect of The X-Files. At times it has been a hard show to love, with its problematic exploration (or non-exploration) of issues related to race, class, gender identity, and sexual orientation. With the possible exceptions of recurring characters like Mr. X and Alvin Kersh, narratives rarely centered on a person of color, let alone a person of color in a position of power. But Season 10 in 2016 found new lows with the Islamophobia of “Babylon,” the transphobia of “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster,” and Scully equating being gay as a “lifestyle preference” in “Founder’s Mutation.” Anderson brought some change in Season 11; after she agreed with critics about the show’s gender disparity(https://www.indiewire.com/2017/08/the-x-files-season-11-women- writers-mythology-episodes-william-1201864653/), five women were added as writers and/or directors. However, this change did little to instill a feminist ethic within the show (and in fact, the representation of gender became more problematic, not less). The show’s intricate mythology doesn’t help either. It started out simple: aliens. Then there were aliens working with “powerful (white) men” often led by Cigarette-Smoking Man (CSM), the main antagonist. For a while, aliens became a lie, but then they were real again. Then they were no longer interested in Earth because of global warming, so powerful men (and one or two women) were now trying to destroy most of Earth’s human population and colonize other planets. Not surprisingly, this constantly changing mythology leaves many storylines either unresolved or wrapped up in unsatisfying ways. To add to all of that, there’s the tangled relationship mythology between Scully and Mulder. For the sake of space, we’ll skip the years of sexual tension. They have — or thought they had — a child together: William (who was given up for adoption as a baby and is a teenager with alien DNA superpowers in Season 11). Scully and Mulder were presumably his parents, yet the audience is never told when their relationship thexfilestv View Profile 175.2k followers View More on Instagram 7,801 likes thexfilestv A mass phenomenon. A missing son. There’s more on the line in Season 11 of #TheXFiles. Get it now on Digital and Blu-ray. #TheXFiles25th (Link in bio) view all 69 comments Add a comment... started or even sometimes if it’s ongoing. Why are we left in the dark? Who knows?! The relationship between main characters should not be a choose-your-own-adventure. Unless… it is a choose-your-own- adventure? Why did I watch this show?!?!?! I guess because I loved so much about how it questioned certain power structures, including the Mulder against the powers-that-be dynamic. He comes from a world of privilege and authority. Yet, he has turned against much of it in order to stay open to the inexplicable, to worlds unknown, unproven. That’s why he’s in the basement office. I also loved that Scully was not willing to buy everything Mulder was selling. She had her own experience and viewpoints as a scientist, as a doctor, as a person with religious faith, and as a woman working in the male-dominated field of the FBI. She wasn’t going to be his protégé or accept his views as her own. And she wouldn’t accept any view without compelling evidence. Yet, I also loved when they listened to each other. Even at odds, they listened when no one else would. Despite all the authority figures who told them not to ask questions, they asked questions and explored in their own way as well as together. In previous seasons, Mulder and Scully were often gaslighted by those powerful men, particularly CSM. Immediately after uncovering or almost uncovering some conspiracy and/or proof of the paranormal, memories were altered, evidence destroyed, case reports dismissed as “spooky.” Clinician and author Stephanie Sarkis explains in “11 Warning Signs of Gaslighting(https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/here-there-and- everywhere/201701/11-warning-signs-gaslighting)” that gaslighting happens when a person or entity takes over someone’s reality through lies and manipulation to seek or maintain control. Most of the time, Mulder and Scully held onto their sense of truth even after being gaslighted: Mulder usually believed in his experiences; Scully stayed skeptical. But it wasn’t the gaslighting that made her question everything,it was her scientifically driven need for evidence. Gaslighting in Science Fiction Science fiction narratives may include gaslighting because these protagonists often encounter unknown worlds that everyone else wants to ignore, dismiss, or conceal. One of The X-Files’ science fiction influences, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, has a scene where government officials arrange a meeting for UFO witnesses. The officials concede that UFOs may exist, but they also insist there’s no evidence to prove anyone had experienced a UFO. The witnesses are supposed to be placated by the admission of the possible existence of UFOs; but at the same time, their experiences are denied. One of the witnesses, Roy Neary, doesn’t give into the gaslighting: “You can’t fool us by agreeing with us.” Aliens’ Ellen Ripley is a precursor to Scully as a science fiction feminist icon.